9:30 a.m. CDT, April 5, 2012
California resident Kenneth Thompson bought a Craftsman wet/dry vacuum at a local Sears store to use at home. He was impressed by the horsepower and tank capacity mentioned on the box.
But now Thompson is claiming that the product's firepower doesn't come as advertised.
He has sued Hoffman Estates-based Sears Holdings Corp. in a U.S. District Court in Chicago, claiming that the retailer misrepresented the horsepower and tank capacity of Craftsman wet/dry vacs.
Thompson said he hired an independent laboratory to conduct tests on the Craftsman appliances, which are made and sold by Sears.
The appliances can generate, in some instances, only 38 percent of the advertised horsepower, and the tanks were less than two-thirds as large as advertised, claimed the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday and is seeking class-action status. Only when the motor assemblies are removed from the tanks is the actual capacity as high as that stated, the suit said. That "would be akin to measuring the headroom in a convertible with the top down," it said.
Sears said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
The suit's allegations include violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and California's false advertising and unfair competitions laws. It's asking the court to force Sears to, among other things, stop marketing the products with the alleged false representations, and issue cash refunds.
The lawsuit estimates that there are more than 100 members of the class and more than $5 million at stake.
Plaintiffs' lawyers include Lite Depalma Greenberg LLC in Chicago.
byerak@tribune.com
Twitter: @beckyyerak
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